Husband and Wife

`The sky is only three feet three away: Bend your head if you go by foot, Dismount if you go by horse.'

- Chinese folk song Driving Ohio's meandering Route 78 west of Ringgold, he and she park and walk to the rim of the world. Below, in sun-drenched autumn air, hills lie like great whales, like lovers, in silence as deep as midocean calm. Fifty years into marriage, he and she bend their heads to the gifts of October: two sons, this chicory sky, these heaped hills with their circles of trees, leaves like gems from the Orient. Slowly taking in this world, they speak their wonder, grow silent.